GRASLIN (Pierre), born in 1775. An Auvergnat, compatriot and friend of
Sauviat, whose daughter Veronique he married in 1822. He began as a
bank-clerk with Grosstete & Perret, a first-class firm of the town. A
man of business and a hard worker he became successor to his
employers. His fortune, increased by lucky speculations with Brezac,
enabled him to buy one of the finest places in the chief city of
Haute-Vienne. But he was not able to win his wife's heart. His
physical unattractiveness, added to by his carelessness and grinding
avarice, were complicated by a domestic tyranny which soon showed
itself. Thus it was that he was only the legal father of a son named
Francis, but he was ignorant of this fact, for, in the capacity of
juror in the Court of Assizes dealing with the fate of Tascheron, the
real father of the child, he urged but in vain the acquittal of the
prisoner. Two years after the boy's birth and the execution of the
mother's lover, in April, 1831, Pierre Graslin died of weakness and
grief. The July Revolution suddenly breaking forth had shaken his
financial standing, which was regained only with an effort. It was at
the time when he had brought Montegnac from the Navarreins. [The
Country Parson.]
GRASLIN (Madame Pierre), wife of preceding; born Veronique Sauviat, at
Limoges in May, 1802; beautiful in spite of traces of small-pox; had
had the spoiled though simple childhood of an only daughter. When
twenty she married Pierre Graslin. Soon after marriage her ingenuous
nature, romantic and refined, suffered in secret from the harsh
tyranny of the man whose name she bore. Veronique, however, held aloof
from the gallants who frequented her salon, especially the Vicomte de
Granville. She had become the secret mistress of J.-F. Tascheron, a
porcelain worker. She was on the point of eloping with him when a
crime committed by him was discovered. Mme. Graslin suffered the most
poignant anguish, giving birth to the child of the condemned man at
the very moment when the father was led to execution. She inflicted
upon herself the bitterest flagellations. She could devote herself
more freely to penance after her husband's death, which occurred two
years later. She left Limoges for Montegnac, where she made herself
truly famous by charitable works on a huge scale. The sudden return of
the sister of her lover dealt her the final blow. Still she had energy
enough to bring about the union of Denise Tascheron and Gregoire
Gerard, gave her son into their keeping, left important bequests
destined to keep alive her memory, and died during the summer of 1844
after confessing in public in the presence of Bianchon, Dutheil,
Granville, Mme. Sauviat and Bonnet who were all seized with admiration
and tenderness for her. [The Country Parson.]
GRASLIN (Francis), born at Limoges in August, 1829. Only child of
Veronique Graslin, legal son of Pierre Graslin, but natural son of
J.-F. Tascheron. He lost his legal father two years after his birth,
and his mother thirteen years later. His tutor M. Ruffin, his maternal
grandmother Mme. Sauviat, and above all the Gregoire Gerards watched
over his boyhood at Montegnac. [The Country Parson.]
GRASSET, bailiff and successor of Louchard. On the demand of Lisbeth
Fischer and by Rivet's advice, in 1838, he arrested W. Steinbock in
Paris and took him to Clichy prison. [Cousin Betty.]
GRASSINS (Des), ex-quartermaster of the Guard, seriously wounded at
Austerlitz, pensioned and decorated. Time of Louis XVIII. he became
the richest banker in Saumur, which he left for Paris where he located
with the purpose of settling the unfortunate affairs of the suicide,
Guillaume Grandet and where he was later made a deputy. Although the
father of a family he conceived a passion for Florine, a pretty
actress of the Theatre du Madame,* to the havoc of his fortune.
[Eugenie Grandet.]
* The name of this theatre was changed, in 1830, to
Gymnase-Dramatique.
GRASSINS (Madame des), born about 1780; wife of foregoing, giving him
two children; spent most of her life at Saumur. Her husband's position
and sundry physical charms which she was able to preserve till nearly
her fortieth year enabled her to shine somewhat in society. With the
Cruchots she often visited the Grandets, and, like the family of the
President de Bonfons, she dreamed of mating Eugenie with her son
Adolphe. The dissipated life of her husband at Paris and the
combination of the Cruchots upset her plans. Nor was she able to do
much for her daughter. However, deprived of much of her property and
making the best of things, Mme. des Grassins continued unaided the
management of the bank at Saumur. [Eugenie Grandet.]
GRASSINS (Adolphe des), born in 1797, son of M. and Mme. des Grassins;
studied law at Paris where he lived in a lavish way. A caller at the
Nucingens where he met Charles Grandet. Returned to Saumur in 1819 and
vainly courted Eugenie Grandet. Finally he returned to Paris and
rejoined his father whose wild life he imitated. [Eugenie Grandet.]
GRASSOU (Pierre), born at Fougeres, Brittany, in 1795. Son of a
Vendean peasant and militant Royalist. Removing at an early age to
Paris he began as clerk to a paint-dealer who was from Mayenne and a
distant relative of the Orgemonts. A mistaken idea led him toward art.
His Breton stubbornness led him successively to the studios of Servin,
Schinner and Sommervieux. He afterwards studied, but fruitlessly, the
works of Granet and Drolling; then he completed his art studies with
Duval-Lecamus. Grassou profited nothing by his work with these
masters, nor did his acquaintance with Lora or Joseph Bridau assist
him. Though he could understand and admire he lacked the creative
faculty and the skill in execution. For this reason Grassou, usually
called Fougeres by his comrades, obtained their warm support and
succeeded in getting admission into the Salon of 1829, for his "Toilet
of a Condemned Chouan," a very mediocre painting palpably along the
lines of Gerard Dow. The work obtained for him from Charles X. the
cross of the Legion of Honor. At last his canvasses found purchasers.
Elie Magus gave him an order for pictures after the Flemish school,
which he sold to Vervelle as works of Dow or Teniers. At that time
Grassou lived at No. 2 rue de Navarin. He became the son-in-law of
Vervelle, in 1832, marrying Virginie Vervelle, the heiress of the
family, who brought him a dowry of one hundred thousand francs, as
well as country and city property. His determined mediocrity opened
the doors of the Academy to him and made him an officer in the Legion
of Honor in 1830, and major of a battalion in the National Guard after
the riots of May 12. He was adored by the middle classes, becoming
their accredited artist. Painted portraits of all the members of the
Crevel and Thuillier families, and also of the director of the theatre
who preceded Gaudissart. Left many frightful and ridiculous daubs, one
of which found its way into Topinard's humble home. [Pierre Grassou. A
Bachelor's Establishment. Cousin Betty. The Middle Classes. Cousin
Pons.]
GRASSOU (Madame Pierre), born Virginie Vervelle; red-haired and
homely; sole heiress of wealthy dealers in cork, on rue Boucherat.
Wife of the preceding whom she married in Paris in 1832. There is a
portrait of her painted in this same year before her marriage, which
at first was a colorless study by Grassou, but was dexterously
retouched by Joseph Bridau. [Pierre Grassou.]
GRAVELOT brothers, lumber-merchants of Paris, who purchased in 1823
the forests of Aigues, the Burgundy estate of General de Montcornet.
[The Peasantry.]
GRAVIER, paymaster-general of the army during the first Empire, and
interested at that time in large Spanish affairs with certain
commanding officers. Upon the return of the Bourbons he purchased at
twenty thousand francs of La Baudraye the office of tax-receiver for
Sancerres, which office he still held about 1836. With the Abbe Duret
and others he frequented the home of Mme. Dinah de la Baudraye. He was
little, fat and common. His court made little way with the baroness,
despite his talent and his worldly-wise ways of a bachelor. He sang
ballads, told stories, and displayed pseudo-rare autographs. [The Muse
of the Department.]
GRAVIER, of Grenoble; head of a family; father-in-law of a notary;
chief of division of the prefecture of Isere in 1829. Knew Genestas
and recommended to him Dr. Benassis, the mayor of the village of which
he himself was one of the benefactors, as the one to attend Adrien
Genestas-Renard. [The Country Doctor.]
GRENIER, known as Fleur-de-Genet; deserter from the Sixty-ninth
demi-brigade; chauffeur executed in 1809. [The Seamy Side of History.]
GRENOUVILLE, proprietor of a large and splendid notion store in
Boulevard des Italiens, Paris, about 1840; a customer of the Bijous,
embroiderers also in business at Paris. At this time an ardent admirer
of Mlle. Olympe Bijou, former mistress of Baron Hulot and Idamore
Chardin. He married her and gave an income to her parents. [Cousin
Betty.]
GRENOUVILLE (Madame), wife of the preceding; born Olympe Bijou, about
1824. In the middle of the reign of Louis Philippe she lived in Paris
near La Courtille, in rue Saint-Maur-du-Temple. Was a pretty but poor
embroiderer surrounded by a numerous and poverty-stricken family when
Josepha Mirah obtained for her old Baron Hulot and a shop. Having
abandoned Hulot for Idamore Chardin, who left her, Olympe married
Grenouville and became a well-known tradeswoman. [Cousin Betty.]
GRENVILLE (Arthur-Ormond, Lord), wealthy Englishman; was being treated
at Montpellier for lung trouble when the rupture of the treaty of
peace of Amiens confined him to Tours. About 1814 he fell in love with
the Marquise Victor d'Aiglemont, whom he afterwards met elsewhere.
Posing as a physician he attended her in an illness and succeeded in
curing her. He visited her also in Paris, finally dying to save her
honor, after suffering his fingers to be crushed in a door--1823. [A
Woman of Thirty.]
GREVIN of Arcis, Aube, began life in the same way as his compatriot
and intimate friend Malin de Gondreville. In 1787, he was second clerk
to Maitre Bordin, attorney of the Chatelet, Paris. Returned to
Champagne at the outbreak of the Revolution. There he received the
successive protection of Danton, Bonaparte and Gondreville. By virtue
of them he became an oracle to the Liberals, was enabled to marry
Mlle. Varlet, the only daughter of the best physician of the city, to
purchase a notary's practice, and to become wealthy. A level-headed
man, Grevin often advised Gondreville, and he directed the mysterious
and fictitious abduction--1803 and the years following. Of his union
with Mlle. Varlet, who died rather young, one daughter was born,
Severine, who became Mme. Phileas Beauvisage. In his old age he
devoted a great deal of attention to his children and their brilliant
future, especially during the election of May, 1839. [A Start in Life.
The Gondreville Mystery. The Member for Arcis.]
GREVIN (Madame), wife of foregoing; born Varlet; daughter of the best
doctor of Arcis-sur-Aube; sister of another Varlet, a doctor in the
same town; mother of Mme. Severine Phileas Beauvisage. With Mme.
Marion she was more or less implicated in the Gondreville mystery. She
died rather young. [The Gondreville Mystery.]
GREVIN, corsair, who served under Admiral de Simeuse in the Indies. In
1816, paralyzed and deaf, he lived with his granddaughter, Mme.
Lardot, a laundress of Alencon, who employed Cesarine and Suzanne and
was patronized by the Chevalier de Valois. [Jealousies of a Country
Town.]
GRIBEAUCOURT (Mademoiselle de), old maid of Saumur and friend of the
Cruchots during the Restoration. [Eugenie Grandet.]
GRIFFITH (Miss), born in 1787; Scotch woman, daughter of a minister in
straitened circumstances; under the Restoration she was governess of
Louise de Chaulieu, whose love she won by reason of her kindliness and
penetration. [Letters of Two Brides.]